A little upset at the trash guys

Greg Peck · October 15, 2008, 08:57:30 PM

A while back I bought a guys equipment who was getting out of beekeeping. He had 2 supers full of honey that he said he never got around to extracting. He was going to keep them but then at the last minute he decided to though them in with the other stuff I bought. I decided that there was no way I was going to extract the honey and sell it as there was know way of knowing what was up with the honey and I did not want to feed it to my bees in case of disease. So the supers sat in the shed for a few months. The other day I cleaned out the shed and decided to get rid of the honey. I took all the frames out and put them in a trash can and left them for the trash guys. Well I came home from work yesterday to find a huge mass of bees flying around the trash area. I figured that the trash guys took the trash and the bees were cleaning out some left over honey. Instead I found the trash can open and all the frames still inside and a million bees taking the honey. So I took the frames out and set them out for the bees to eat. So now I am hoping that there was nothing wrong with the honey so my bees at this yard dont die. I have no idea why the trash guys did not take it.

Some of the honey I think was starting to ferment. Will that mess the bees up or can they deal with it?

Nelly · October 15, 2008, 09:57:51 PM

I'll bet the bees had already arrived and the trash guys were afraid to mess with it!

I would think that the bees will take whatever honey they deem suitable, and leave the rest if its fermented. Or, they may throw a party and have fun drinking the funky honey--

Nelly

Greg Peck · October 15, 2008, 10:26:47 PM

I thought that they would have found the trash can also but I put the honey in there almost a week ago and check the can for several days and they were not messing with it. The lid closed tight. I think some one may have walked by and thrown something in it then left the lid ajar. I dont know... Oh well to late to change anything now. I bet there is a lot of FUI's going on. (Flying Under the Influence) :shock:

gottabee · October 16, 2008, 03:23:48 PM

If the honey was capped it's probably ok. If not get your wife or girlfriend to taste it!

Brian D. Bray · October 16, 2008, 10:14:58 PM

Why did you want to throw away the frames to begin with? You could have cleaned up every thing using crush and strain and reconditioned the frames along with the boxes.
Only uncapped honey will ferment in the comb as the bees don't cap it until it is fully cured. One way of removing the fermentable honey from frames is to spin them in the extractor a few minutes before uncapping. The uncured honey is removed, can then be drained out of the extractor, clean the extractor, uncap the frames and harvest the honey.

If there are bees buzzing the trash collectors won't take it. If the bees smell honey (even slightly fermented honey) they will congregate close to the source of the smell. Once an entrance is made that is large enough for the bees to enter, they will begin robbing out the honey. This sounds like what I call a DUH moment. A DUH moment is one from which you learn or are reminded of why do we certain things certain ways.

Scadsobees · October 17, 2008, 09:40:13 AM

I think that if you have full frames of honey laying around for a while that there are cappings that get nicked and peirced, and those cells will absorb atmospheric water, causing the few to ferment. A little fermentation goes a long way.

I don't leave full frames around, but the few that I've seen almost always have this going on.

Rick

JP · October 17, 2008, 09:46:43 AM

I have seen bees die from eating fermented honey on more than one occasion.

...JP

Cindi · October 17, 2008, 10:29:28 AM

Quote from: Brian D. Bray on October 16, 2008, 10:14:58 PM
Only uncapped honey will ferment in the comb as the bees don't cap it until it is fully cured. One way of removing the fermentable honey from frames is to spin them in the extractor a few minutes before uncapping. The uncured honey is removed, can then be drained out of the extractor, clean the extractor, uncap the frames and harvest the honey.

Brian, how cool is that!!! Now don't we just learn something new and wonderful, every day of our lives, beauty. Have a most awesome and great day, Cindi

Greg Peck · October 19, 2008, 09:39:54 PM

The reason I did not want to extract the honey and use it in any way was because I did not know the guy I got them from. All his bees had died so he was getting out of the hobby. He claimed that they died over the last winter but who knows. He could have had the supers on while he was medicating or they could have become contaminated with who knows what sitting in his garage. It just was not a risk I was willing to take for 14.00 worth of frames. I got a very good deal on the rest of the equipment so loosing the frames was not a big deal. If they had been my frames or from some an fellow beekeeper that I knew then it would have been a different story.